Slumber

Yeah, I've always been of the opinion that the games work better when you're given clear, simple boundaries to work in. This includes classes, and it's partially why I hate how Fates handled classes. There are so many classes in that game that it feels like they were just tossing shit at the wall, and didn't even bother to wait to see what stuck. "An infantry axe class that can use magic? Sure, fuck it. Let's also make it improbable for any unit in the game to reasonably utilize the strengths of that class compared to the alternatives." Yet at the same time, there were effectively just two classes in the whole game that were strictly offensive magic units.

You said You've said nothing to argue against what I just said in this context. You've moved the goalpost from "Foreign markets rarely matter to companies as much as the home markets does" to "They don't make games to appeal to the west", which still doesn't line-up with all of the shit we know about major developers and how they make games, and is completely asinine to keep asserting. And yeah, this has turned into a tangent, but it's a tangent YOU initiated. This is a thread about Fire Emblem failing prior to Awakening, with pretty much everyone agreeing "Yeah, the marketing in the west was trash and Japan didn't like the Tellius games", and you basically decided to chime in and say "The market point is a myth, the west doesn't matter", when it clearly does in the eyes of game developers/publishers, including Nintendo. Even if they care about the Japanese market more, that doesn't somehow invalidate the idea that the west doesn't have influence on how the series performs.

I can't speak from before 2000, but the Smash to Sacred Stones era was... interesting. From where I was from, it was a lot of hardcore "Is this character good at 20/20? No? THEN THEY SUCK." stuff, and a ton of arguing about how easy SS was compared to FE7. A lot of romanticizing the Japanese games as well.

Gaming and movies are a lot different. The Legend of Zelda, another Nintendo franchise, isn't THAT big of a deal in Japan. In the west, it's a damn near celebrated occasion when one comes out, and a Zelda game can pretty much sell entire consoles by itself in the west. Metroid is similar. Sony sells their handhelds to Japan, but far more of their attention goes to appealing to western audiences on home consoles. There's a reason the PS Vita is likely going to be their last strictly handheld gaming device, even though it did well in Japan. Platinum Games and From Software pretty much ONLY care about their western audiences. Capcom has Monster Hunter, but virtually all of their other franchises hinge on western crowds. Square's in a similar situation with Dragon Quest, where it's their big mainstay in Japan, while everything else(INCLUDING Final Fantasy) relies heavily on western audiences. The only major Japanese developer/publisher I can think of that seems to put priority on the Japanese audience is Koei-Tecmo.

Haven't the US/Western sales been meeting or exceeding the Japanese sales ever since they brought the series overseas? I don't see how talking about the US marketing is pointless if the games flopped in the west and Japan. The marketing was trash here.

I wasn't talking about Japan, though? I was speaking pretty strictly on the western sales.

They're really not an evolution of A ranks. A ranks usually stopped at platonic feelings, and continued a pretty natural chain of events. Occasionally they developed into romantic feelings in endings, but most A ranks were platonic. S ranks turn ALL support chains that end with S into romantic relationships. A lot of them were out of nowhere, and it felt really out of place most of the time, completely unrelated to the 3 conversations that took place before. Units who really had NO business falling in love turning around in one conversation going "Wait, actually I love you, let's make babies." It was incredibly awkward and pander-y compared to C-A ranks.

Well, Radiant Dawn also had being a sequel to Path of Radiance, another game that sold poorly, going against it. Shadow Dragon didn't do anything to inspire the fanbase. Also, for what it's worth, FE7 when it first came here, had pretty decent marketing. There were primetime adds("WHAT HAPPENED TO DORCAS?!"), and it got a lot of push in the RPG/Adventure games that came out around the same time. If you bought the GBA version of A Link to the Past, you got an ad for Fire Emblem. You bought Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, you got an ad for Fire Emblem. You buy Advanced Wars(Which was a surprise hit), you got an ad for Fire Emblem. FE7, not so surprisingly, was also far and away the best seller in the US prior to Awakening. Nintendo, for whatever reason, just gave up on marketing.

Radiant Dawn had a hilariously limited run, and next to no marketing. SD was more available, but also had dogshit marketing.

Don't use VGChartz. They're not the most credible or accurate source.

Uh, even in that quote, I never said Roy was the worst unit in FE6.

Yeah, both are bad. But look at how shows like 24 or movies like the Daniel Craig James Bond films portray torture. The hero overcomes it because he's strong, and we know he'll get out of it and kill everyone torturing him. Villains getting tortured mostly just seem annoyed until the tortures get what they want, or they're defiant towards the end. Then compare American History X. Our big tough, neo-Nazi protagonist gets raped, and he doesn't flex his way through it. It causes him to break down, cry, and denounce neo-Nazism, which was basically unthinkable.

Rape has been seen as worse than physical torture for quite some time. Rape's seen as a deeper violation, while torture, still capable of causing terrible things like PTSD, is more seen as a skin-deep violation. We connect sex with deep emotional connections, so having sex forced on you against your will is generally seen as immensely emotionally/psychologically damaging, which we see as more harmful and harder to recover from than physical scars. And this is especially true in a franchise that builds itself on getting you to care about its characters. So seeing the Bramsel scenes generally carry way more impact than any scenes of torture.

Doesn't her owner get really upset at the implication that she's used as a sex slave? Seems like he was just having her dance.

I mean, it's hard to call it a "Boss rush". They aren't mechanically different than any other enemies you fight. They're just much, much stronger than the average enemy you fight, and there's some story context to them.

Nah. I wasn't a fan of how Awakening used them. Just go with a similar concept, like FE7 did. Just don't call them the Deadlords.

I avoided SD!Marth in my argument for a reason *coughcough*. Nobody's going to deny him being insanely bad. But I always have a hard time separating him from FE1 Marth, who is considerably less bad.

I don't necessarily think Mareeta was raped. Most of Mareeta's life up until the start of the game, Mareeta is with Eyvel, so even with being captured, the window would have been pretty short. She also spends a good chunk of the time when she was taken over by the Dark Sword and under Raydrik's control with Saias, who I really doubt would let that happen. Raydrik, the massive asshole that he is, also doesn't strike me as a rapist. There are other instances of implied rape in the Jugdral games, but there's usually some attention brought to them by the victims or someone close to them. This is more of a throwaway line. I expect it's more to show that Mareeta is Galzus' daughter than it is that Raydrik did anything to Mareeta, since ALL Odo descendants have the marking on their back. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, given Jugdral, but I don't think that's what is going on here. That said, I think the Bramsel scene with Lene/Laylea is the most messed up scene in Fire Emblem, since that more than crossed the line of "implied" rape.

I agree that he can take down the axers pretty safely, but those are rarely ever a threat, even to your lance units, after the first few maps when you start gaining levels. The only time they become dangerous is when the game starts tossing Berserkers at you, and the game's insane crit rates make them a massive threat to ANYONE not at range(Roy's going to start having problems before then, anyway). And yeah, I wouldn't toss Roy down there with the likes of Sophia or Gwendolyn, but FE6's bottom tier is so low that him being a tier above that isn't really cause for praise. Comparing him to virtually every other lord, which is where this whole argument stems from, I can't say I can think of a single one that performs worse. Micaiah's going to be slow and squishy, but she's a walking nuke. She's generally a safe boss nuker, she promotes at the right times, she can start healing fairly early, and she can deal with most situations that don't put her up against Tiger Laguz. Eirika's not great, but she's in a game that's much easier and much more forgiving than FE6. Lyn gets Lyn Mode that can get her up to speed on Eliwood/Hector's route, can promote pretty early, is at least a safe dodge tank, and she also effectively gets TWO Manni Katis early-ish in the game, giving her a bit more longevity against most lancers than Roy(Also in a game more forgiving than Roy's). Leif starts with the Light Brand, gets leadership stars, Thracia's enemies being on the lower end of stats, and his stats are solid, being bolstered by him being the best person to hold a handful of scrolls for a good chunk of the game. Eliwood is basically Roy in a game where enemies aren't NEARLY as threatening, and his promotion being a bit better(Though his final weapon being noticeably worse). In the grand scheme of things, you can extrapolate all of this to mean that even the worst Lord is usable, but there has to be a "Worst Lord" out there. And my hat goes to Roy in that case, as far as gameplay goes.

Right, but the thing is, you usually use those units for some kind of payoff. Yeah, Allen can get 2-shot with a high-roll Fighter, but you can either use him because he's a strong unit in the long run, and will show returns on investment pretty quickly, or you can just not use him. Roy doesn't get either of these. Roy doesn't show any return on investment until chapter 22, and you're forced to use him. Far more of the game will be sheltering him than it will be actively using him, because he's much more of a liability than he is an asset.

Rutger's stats and the insane 30% crit rate. I feel like people are overstating the presence of axes in the early game. It's not just chapter 15 onward that gives Roy problems. Any time you're dealing with Bern, which I'd say is about half of the chapters between 2 and 14, you're bound to be swamped by lances, and if Roy loses his Rapier trying to save himself to Cavaliers, he's fucked. Plus, Roy is NOT a dodge tank, and he's not very durable. On enemy phases, he's not going to want to deal with Cavaliers any more than he wants to deal with anything else wielding a lance.

It's exactly what I thought a hateful, bigoted, God-fearing pedophile's "concession speech" would sound like.

Alabama, I'm sorry about the bad things I've said about you. You're not as bad as Mississippi.

I wouldn't go that far. As somebody who never took the leaks seriously(I saw way too many red flags), them not being real doesn't really impact my impression of her. At the very least, a good few members here seemed to have fun entertaining the idea that these leaks would be true, and I don't think many people took them 100% to heart. Which is... something to have over the lull in between the announcement and the proper reveal.

Never. Men live or die by their word. You can take your bronze weapons. I say pistols at dawn.